


Shell Game

by JudithSykes



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Dark Bedelia Du Maurier, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Ficlet, Gen, Hannibal Lecter is a Cannibal, Mental Coercion, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:06:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27239266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudithSykes/pseuds/JudithSykes
Summary: Bedilia is sure, this time, that she has all the answers. This time, Hannibal will be surprised.
Relationships: Bedelia Du Maurier & Hannibal Lecter
Kudos: 4





	Shell Game

Bedelia Du Maurier has always survived Hannibal by imagining every one of her fears and living them. Being prepared for them and smiling her cold smile when Hannibal proves her right.

She lived in her cold, dark house. Moved among the dust sheets and the enormous silence of no power or water humming in the background. Noises you forgot existed until you no longer had them.

She hid her thin blankets in the roof of her bathroom. She showered at the YMCA, smiled the bitter smile of a survivor to every woman behind the desk. They never asked why her perfect suits and makeup happened in their shower rooms. 

When Hannibal opened the door with his key into the mausoleum of her life, she finally opened a bottle of wine and waited for him with the terrible patience of inevitability.

In Italy, she knew without a doubt that she was always on the menu for tomorrow. 

Each night she let her mind run languid and golden with Hannibal's gentle reinforcement in her ears and his fingers in her hair. She wondered in the quite between breaths, between surfaces, between Hannibal and the bottom of the bathtub, if she could eat herself.

She had discovered quickly that humans were only meat.

How far did her sense of self extend? Could she isolate her knowledge of herself from her body?

Bedelia had already seen Hannibal's sister ...Chiyoh. She wondered what Hannibal had fed her to keep her so young and juicy. When Hannibal left to chase Will and Will came to chase Hannibal's tail, She watched the prism of Jack and Will's words shine in the air and she knew, better than she knew her name, that she would survive this.

For a few grey years her world walked a straight line of time and meaning and place. She knew exactly where Hannibal was and every breath felt like freedom. The wild thrum of life in her body was intoxicating. She chased the old, unceasing periods of excitement in the high class rooms of opulence and iniquity. None of them satisfied her.

The rarefied life of Baltimore shied away from the bloodsport they had delighted in when it had all been pretend. Before they knew that Hannibals sharp teeth and sharp knives had made sharp work of those too rude to live.

She could stagger her reality with the occasional dose of Lydia Fell, but it never lasted long enough.

When the night came and Will said goodbye, she knew her time had come. 

Rather than let Hannibal give into his pathologies, before treating her meat with tenderness and theatrical culinary talent, Bedelia used the knowledge of herself held sharp in her fist.

She used the knowledge she had swallowed in Hannibal's presence.

She prepared everything precisely. The ghost of Hannibal was tangled in her hair. She laid the table for three and poured the wine.

The beats of her heart counted the seconds and echoed throughout her body. She thought she saw the leaves wrapped and twisted so prettily bob in time with her heartbeat as well. As if the leg on the table was counting with her.

She cultivated the smile that Hannibal had loved the most. The one that matched his. She wore his favourite dress, the perfume he has stilled for her.

She waited and she thought "This time. He will be surprised."

Because they had already had this conversation and Bedelia knew she finally had all the answers.


End file.
